Breaking Through to Reality
by Fianna9
Summary: For the prowl/jazz challenge 2017: prompts: champion, reason to believe, breaking the rules Warning: mention of depression Summary: Someone finally saw through the facade Sequel to Facade


Title: Breaking Through to Reality

prompt: champion, reason to believe, breaking the rules

Smokescreen held the near heretical view that crashing on Earth and being trapped here had turned out to be a real blessing for Autobots. Sure, Shockwave with his drones and the Seekers under his command was basically running Cybertron, and if he wanted to experiment on prisoners or Decepticons there weren't many left to stop him. Yes, they had brought the war to an unsuspecting world with no other contact with the galactic community which still bothered Optimus.

Unlike most of the troops, Smokescreen had a good idea how much energon was actually making it to Cybertron through the space bridge. Shockwave might be in control there, but it wasn't like creepy menace actually had a lot of resources to work with or waste on his experiments. The same wouldn't have been true if he was on Earth. Fortunately Megatron didn't trust Starscream out of his sight let alone left in control of a world with his Seekers at his beck and call. Thus Shockwave and most of the Seekers remained safely back on Cybertron with those limited resources while Starscream and Megatron stayed put feuding here on earth. It had worked to the advantage of both groups of Autobots. Kup told Ironhide during one of the quick messages that Earth could keep the Decepticon gestalts too because he didn't want to have to fight them again unless he absolutely had to do so.

The disappearance of most of the Autobot leaders had forced everyone else to learn just how effective the remainder could be despite limited resources. Elita One and her femmes had proven as amazingly competent at hit-and-run tactics as Optimus could have hoped, and Ultra Magnus had successfully kept his team going despite the difficulties and limited resources.

The resources here on Earth weren't even the best part as far as Smokescreen was concerned, although it had been amazing to online and realize they didn't have to face near starvation rations anymore. The scientists and medics had quickly established which forms of energy were safest for creating fuel, and everyone, even Trailbreaker despite his own protests, was on full rations now.

The thing Smokescreen was most grateful for was the very thing that bugged a lot of the others: the close quarters and how everyone was on top of everyone else. The Rec Room was almost always occupied and a lot of mechs grumbled about having to share quarters. The psychologist in Smokescreen was fascinated by the differences these close quarters were making in how everyone interacted. Sure even he would admit things got cramped at times, but most mechs didn't realize their own version of "As the Kitchen Sinks" was playing out around them. They also didn't realize how much those close quarters had done to help some of their number.

Mirage was one who had benefitted from being on Earth despite his vocal dislike for the planet. Cliffjumper's snide comments about Mirage being a traitor would have been a lot harder to disprove or ignore back when everyone wasn't in such close quarters. Smokescreen was also getting a kick out of watching Hound's attempts to court Mirage, something that the noble never would have allowed happened on Cybertron if Hound had even thought to do it.

Red Alert was also benefitting from the change. Inferno still had to occasionally remind him that most Earth animals weren't dangerous to them, but even he said that Red Alert seemed more relaxed. After all, Red Alert had lists of all the Decepticons on Earth supplied by Jazz and his crew, and he knew every Autobot by sight and field. Traitors and spies were mostly limited to Bombshell's mind-controlling cerebro-shells and Soundwave's symbionts hiding in the vents. Their time here was practically a vacation for the Security Chief.

And the most important reason Smokescreen was grateful to be here on Earth instead of Cybertron had just entered the Rec Room and were heading for the fuel dispenser. Smokescreen watched as Huffer and Grapple greeted Prowl as he passed before the minibots turned back to talking about some museum the humans had built in New York.

On Cybertron, no one would have spoken to the tactician so casually. Prowl had successfully built a reputation of being a workaholic near drone who didn't care about anything but numbers and cold logic. Smokescreen had known of him before Praxus fell, and he'd met every survivor afterwards as they all grieved over their losses. He was ashamed to say even he had been fooled by the illusion Prowl had created and maintained. It wasn't until they'd onlined on Earth and been forced to live in each other's subspace that anyone had paid real attention to the head tactician.

Thank Primus for bored SpecOps mechs. Having only one major Decepticon base to infiltrate meant Jazz had a lot of free time to observe the crew and watch morale. Out of sight, out of mind was both a humans and Cybertronian saying for a reason, and he'd made a point to get to know everyone on the crew. Even breaking the unspoken rule of the Autobots by trying to get to know the drone that was the second-in-command.

Jazz was the first to notice that Prowl was skipping recharge and made him go to Medical. After the first incident, Jazz appointed himself as monitor of Prowl's work schedule. Smokescreen knew he'd even locked Prowl out of his office on occasion when he thought the tactician was working too hard. It had lead to some spectacular moments just out of view of the rest of the crew.

One breakthrough had been when Jazz was looking for some help with the political side of living on Earth. Sure, he and Optimus were great at talking to individual leaders, but they could use help dealing with the bureaucrats. Jazz became convinced that Prowl was the perfect mech for the job, despite the fact that he had displayed no interest in any aspect of their new allies. Ratchet had been worried that the convulsions of human behavior would tax Prowl's temperamental emotional circuits; Jazz thought it would keep Prowl's battle computer from getting bored here on Earth with the limited number of combatants.

After some prodding by Jazz, Smokescreen had suggested to Prowl that the three tacticians learn more about Earth so they could better understand how its geography and human political structures might impact Cybertronian battles. Smokescreen was ashamed to say that evening was the first real conversation he had ever had with Prowl outside of mandatory grief sessions or work, and it had proven lively and interesting in a way he'd never have believed if he hadn't been present. At the end of the discussion with Sparkplug, which had eventually wandered over to the causes of Earth's World War II, Prowl became immersed in the topic of human politics and quickly became the Ark's expert on understanding how to navigate international human relations. Just as Jazz had hoped, the permutations kept the battle computer busy, while Prowl increased his interactions with the others as he had to explain why dealing with one country could cause problems with getting supplies from another on the opposite side of the planet.

Jazz had been the first one to notice that Prowl never entered the Rec Room except to break up parties, and the saboteur had nagged at Prowl until he actually started making appearances in public just to get some peace. He convinced Prowl to take the time to go driving with Bluestreak, explaining that he needed to burn off restless energy. Jazz even got Prowl to play chess with Chip by claiming it was a good way to learn to interact with the humans.

Once Jazz coerced Prowl into making public appearances, it didn't take long for others to start paying more attention to him. After all, here on Earth he wasn't just the faceless voice in your comm during battle; he was the mech driving next to you towards a Decepticon raid. His disciplinary actions became more understandable even to those being disciplined. There were so few mechs here that the impact of a missed shift or fight on the whole team became obvious. Jazz also convinced Prowl to allow a few parties by explaining the logic behind blowing off steam and celebrating victories.

Jazz wasn't doing it alone anymore, although he was still the main instigator of any plan to make Prowl's life a little better. Jazz checked in regularly with the medical team, making certain he wasn't doing any damage by pushing the reserved mech more into the spotlight.

Smokescreen watched Prowl take his energon and sit down at the table with the saboteur. Looking at Prowl's relaxed doorwings and small smile, Smokescreen gave a small nod and turned his attention to the continuing drama as Tracks and Sunstreaker entered arguing about who looked better today. As long as Prowl had Jazz in his life, Smokescreen had every reason to believe his fellow Praxian would eventually be okay.


End file.
